Habibe Biyali stands inside a room in her house heavily damaged by fighting in Kumanovo, Macedonia on Monday. Residents are returning to their homes in a northern Macedonian town where a fierce weekend battle between special police units and alleged ethnic Albanian militants left 22 dead and at least 37 injured

A Palestinian woman hangs out laundry in her home in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun on Wednesday, which was severely damaged in the 50-day war in the summer of 2014 between Israel and Hamas militants

A Kurdish fighter smiles as he drives a car in the centre of the Syrian border town of Kobani, known as Ain al-Arab, on Wednesday. Kurdish forces recaptured the strategic town on the Turkish frontier on Tuesday in a symbolic blow for the jihadists who have seized swathes of territory in a brutal onslaught across Syria and Iraq

Rescue personnel survey the wreckage after an explosion in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, on Friday. The explosion, caused by a gas leak, killed 22 people, injured 270 and sent flames shooting 15 storeys into the air